LIAM SILKE WILL miss UCD’s Sigerson Cup semi-final this weekend, less than a year after he sat out their victory against NUIG in the decider of the competition.
Silke’s involvement with Corofin has once again ruled him out for a major game in the third-level competition. The Galway kingpins face Gaoth Dobhair in Carrick-on-Shannon at 1.30pm on Saturday as they look to make their second All-Ireland club final in succession.
While NUIG requested for their last four clash with UCC to be moved to Sunday, the UCD-St Mary’s meeting will go ahead as planned on Saturday at 3pm.
John Divilly, manager of the Belfield college, opted not to ask Silke to play two days in succession.
“It’s not great to be missing out, just having them on the same weekend. It’s a bit of a disaster really,” said Silke at the launch of the Bodibro Sportswear’s new 2019 GAA range.
“After last year, you’d think they would have learned their lesson but it’s the same racket again.
I’ve been talking to the UCD management team and they’d flagged this potential fixture clash to the GAA back in November and there was nothing done about it then.
“They just felt that it wouldn’t have been fair on me to play two games in the one weekend and that’s why they didn’t put in a last-minute request to have the game changed.
“My UCD team-mates understand the situation I’m in and they understand that there’s not much I can do about it. But there’s plenty of strength in depth in the UCD squad.
“There are lads sitting on the bench waiting for their chance and they’ll be plenty good when they get it.”
Silke’s clubmate Kieran Molloy will play two major games over the weekend.
“It’s just a terrible situation we’re been put into two years in-a-row,” remarked Silke. “There’s not a whole lot we can do about it, we don’t make the fixtures.
The GAA is letting us down by having this happening, it’s just the same mistakes again.
“It’s not fair on Kieran, having to play two games in one weekend but that’s just the situation he’s been put into. I’d love to be playing as well, but it’s not really possible, and not good enough really.”
Silke believes playing off the All-Ireland club competition in the calendar year would prevent this issue arising in the future. He’ll miss the Sigerson game but does plan on streaming it on the team bus following the tie against the Donegal champions.
The defender spent last summer in Boston, lining out for the Donegal club alongside Diarmuid Connolly.
“You’re playing games every weekend over there as it is so it’s not as much of a break as people think it is,” Silke said.
It’s just a different atmosphere, different perspective and it’s not as intense or as much demands on you. It was nice just to get away for a while and just enjoy myself.
“He’s a class player,” he says of the two-time All-Star. “Everyone knows and sees that. He did most of his talking on the pitch.
“He was a big influential figure in the team over there and there were plenty of other inter-county players over there as well, so it was nice to be able to go into a team with that much quality in it and just enjoy yourself playing football.
“He’d be talking before games and that. He’s a class player and that’s as much as there is to it.”
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